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The chemical kit that's coming with my tub, I think, only has MPS (no dichlor). Should I plan on getting some dichlor as soon as the tub comes and use it right from the start? And why would I want/need MPS if I'm using dichlor?Thanks!
I added 3 tablespoons this AM and it tested out as you said Vinny, to about 12ppm. Yesterday in trying to catch up a night or 2 of missed dosing, I ended up adding 9 tablespoons, in 2 teaspoon increments off and on, over a 10 hr or so period and nothing showed up. I'm missing a basic understanding of whats going on. When a teaspoon or so's added, I'm "sanitizing" something? When I add tablespoons, I'm "oxidizing" something? What's happening? How's the dichlor know which to do and other than by generally accepted practices, how do I know which to do. If, after a nightly dose of 2 teaspoons, I only see 0ppm do I automatically shock the tub with tablespoons to see something? ThanksJoel
QuoteI added 3 tablespoons this AM and it tested out as you said Vinny, to about 12ppm. Yesterday in trying to catch up a night or 2 of missed dosing, I ended up adding 9 tablespoons, in 2 teaspoon increments off and on, over a 10 hr or so period and nothing showed up. I'm missing a basic understanding of whats going on. When a teaspoon or so's added, I'm "sanitizing" something? When I add tablespoons, I'm "oxidizing" something? What's happening? How's the dichlor know which to do and other than by generally accepted practices, how do I know which to do. If, after a nightly dose of 2 teaspoons, I only see 0ppm do I automatically shock the tub with tablespoons to see something? ThanksJoelIt is my understanding that chlorine does both at the same time. It will sanitize when needed and oxidize when needed. If the tub wasn't heated, you might go days with a chlorine residue but the heat disapates the chlorine. A chemical ion (ozone is part of this too) doesn't "know" anything, it reacts to a substance. As chlorine gets used up or disapates it has less effect on things. Killing bacteria and I believe oxidizing needs contact time ... If you stick 100 PPM chlorine in the tub and 1 miute later neutralized it, not much will be killed.To oxidize combined chlorine (CC) you need 10x free chlorine (FC) as the CC amount. So if you have 0.3 PPM all you need is 3 PPM FC to oxidize; if you have 2 PPM CC then you need 20 PPM FC ... which is a lot of chlorine and that's where MPS can come into play. How much chlorine do you need to oxidize other things in a tub? I have no clue!What you want to see is a residue of 3 or so PPM 20 minutes after adding and you should see some residue the following morning if dosing at night. If you don't see this you need to add more. I generally double the dose if the original dose didn't work. I believe what was going on in your tub that you never achived a good kill with the amount of chlorine you were putting in. In 102º water bacteria doubles every 20 minutes so thinking that since your tub was used without adding dichlor, there were millions of bacteria in the tub. Adding the amounts of chlorine you were adding gave you partial kills and the bacteria kept thriving. I don't know if you've read any of my posts about my water but I can only go 2 days before my tub gets cloudy. I need to add dichlor every other day and it stays crystal clear.